Tag nominations are open now! It will work the same way it did last year, and here's last year's Tag Set to refresh your memory. aurilly will be in charge of tags again, so keep your eyes peeled for some posts from her.

Here is the TENTATIVE schedule for the exchange:

Tag nominations open: July 1stSignups open: Sometime between July 11th - July 13th (depending on how long it takes to get tags finalized)Signups close: July 23th - 25th (again, depending on tags)Assignments sent out: by July 29thFics due: anytime before August 31st Prompts Revealed/Madness: July 30th - September 18thMain collection opens: September 11thMadness collection opens: September 18thAuthors revealed: September 19th

Reasons for the tentativeness of this schedule:1) Getting tags finalized before the assignments go out2) This year I've split the opening of the collections, as suggested by a participant. You'll have the main collection open for a week, giving you time to read and send feedback, and then the Madness collection will open the following week, with the authors revealed the next day.3) I want to hear your opinions on that new way of opening collections and revealing authors. If most are in agreement, we'll proceed like that. If you want it changed back to opening the same day, we can go that way too. And if you prefer to wait a week between the collection opens and the author reveals, rather than a day, that can change too.

(If you don't have an LJ account, you can make your opinions known in the comments!)

As usual, Madness is not mandatory, but it's always fun. And if you choose not to participate in the Main Exchange and just in Madness, that's fine!

Obviously the exchange will not be double-blind (as it used to be in years past) and you will know who you are writing for. If people want to write "Dear NFE Writer" letters and post them on LJ/Dreamwidth/Tumblr/wherever, that is fine, but not mandatory! You can put everything you want in your signup, if you like.

In the past, you've been allowed to request crossovers, and fic set in other people's fanverses. You can still do that, but those will have to go in the optional details part of the signup. You cannot request crossovers and fanverses only, though, as your assigned writer may not be familiar with the other fandom/fanverse. So remember to include some canonical requests.

There will also be a box in the offer part of the signup where you, as a writer, can talk about what you like to write, and also put ONE OR TWO dealbreakers of what you can't write (for example, "no incest and I hate Edmund Pevensie"). Bear in mind that it would be extremely unlikely in this exchange for you to say, "I can't write slash" and then get matched to someone who only requests slash. Most participants offer several options of what they want, and I don't see this changing.

Finally: I will be having surgery at some point during the course of this year's exchange, and it's possible that I'll be out of commission when the time comes to open the collections. But fear not, aurilly will be around, and lady_songsmith has volunteered to help out, so nothing should go off course. Thanks to both of them for going the extra mile!

Okay, I think that's it for now. Go forth, nominate, and ask any questions you have and I will try to answer them! You can email me at narniaficexchange@gmail.com too.

I would like the regular and madness collections to have their author reveals on the same day, just for logistical simplicity. This is true whether they open at the same time or whether they open a week apart. However, I like the chance to read all the fics without preconceptions -- ie, while the authors are anonymous -- which is just as true for Madness fics as for the regular exchange fics. That's why I'd like both collections to open simultaneously.

I assume the argument for opening them separately is so the Madness collection doesn't distract from the main collection? That is a concern, but I think even if there's consensus that the Madness collection should open on a delay compared to the main collection, a full week is overkill. One or two days' gap should be fine.

I just checked, and "Bacchus/Maenads" exists as a relationship tag, but "Maenads" on their own isn't a standard tag. Strange.

Can you give me a brief idea of what you were going to use the Maenads tag to request? And also the other ones you said you wanted to nominate. Depending on what it is you're looking for, there might be an umbrella concept that would work (ex. Greek Mythology Figures, or something like that). If not, I'll figure out how to add Maenads as a character or freeform or something (do you have a preference?).

These all sound fine! Two of them were actually in last year's tagset, so you're not the first. :) Copy paste each of the below into a separate line in the character section of your nomination form. Ignore what AO3 tries to tell you.

I read the fics that sound like they're about characters or concepts I like, regardless of which collection they're in. I hardly notice, honestly. And I like to go at my own pace through the list. So I vote to open everything on the same day and reveal all authors on the same day (author reveals a week after the collection opens), for simplicity!

Tricky, re: voting in the survey. I've made a somewhat similar suggestion in the past - as edenfalling suggests, it was because I felt the main collection was swamped in the rush of people writing and reading madness stories. I haven't voted, though, because I don't expect to sign up this year.Best wishes for the surgery, snacky, and kudos to all three for pitching in to run this.